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About Rich Copley & Copious Notes

Raised by opera-loving parents in a rock ’n’ roll world, Rich Copley has parlayed his broad interests into his career writing about arts and entertainment. Since 1998, he has covered performing arts, film and faith-based popular culture for the Lexington Herald-Leader, the daily newspaper in Lexington, Ky. It’s a pretty broad beat, but Rich delights in finding influences of the past in the present and showing fine arts fans the value of pop culture, and vice versa. ~ Copious Notes is a blog covering that broad spectrum. If you want to read about specific areas of interest, such as theater or opera, click on one of the categories to the right and you will be whisked away to all posts in that category. Also, look around the blog for links; multimedia items such as photo albums, videos, and interviews with artists; and other nuggets. Have fun, and thanks for dropping in.
The header for this blog was designed by Danny Kelly and the illustration was drawn by Camille Weber.

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January 10, 2008

We need Jon Stewart

The Daily Show host Jon Stewart in a 2006 photo by Ken Fitzsimons, courtesy of Comedy Central.

More than Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien, the return of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart seemed rife with peril. After all, the guy sits at a desk for half-an hour doing largely scripted material. Without his striking writers, and apparently being barred from writing himself, as he's a member of the Writers' Guild, what exactly would he do?

Stewart's first night back since the beginning of the strike, Jan. 7, was a little painful. The host fell into the trap of thinking everyone was as preoccupied with strike as he was, and he used a segment with Cornell University labor relations professor Ronald Seeber to vent his frustrations at not being able to strike a David Letterman-esque deal to get his writers back to work.

But better than anyone else in television, Stewart knows when he's bad, and judging by the opening of his second show, a lot of people also told him as much after that first show back.

The past two nights, he has been much more on his game, not only at being funny, but also at picking apart the news of the day.

Two prime examples:

~ On the Republican side of Saturday night's ABC News/Facebook
debate, Mitt Romney claimed to have not called John McCain's
immigration plan amnesty in a commercial. Stewart ran the segment of
the commercial where McCain's plan was indeed called amnesty and then
the portion of the commercial where Romney says he approved the
message. "This is the CEO candidate?" Stewart asked, in his trademark
mock exasperation.

~ We got a tresDaily Show video montage of reporters
and pundits talking about Hillary Clinton's so-called breakdown in New
Hampshire as if she had dissolved into tears, rended her garments and
attempted ritual suicide. Then we saw the actual footage, which
essentially amounted to Clinton getting a little choked up for a minute.

What made that really funny was waking up the next morning and flipping on the Today
show where, once again, they were talking about Hillary's emotional
display, and whether it may have contributed to her "surprising" win in
the New Hampshire Democratic Primary.

Which brings us to last night, when Stewart had John Zogby of Zogby
International on to talk about how his and other polls could have been
so wrong, predicting a double-digit victory for Barack Obama over
Clinton. Stewart got a good laugh when Zogby talked about Obama's Iowa
"bump" and asked if Obama really got a "bump" because, after all, the
only evidence of said "bump" was the polls, which were wrong.

After a day of watching journalists on CNN, MSNBC and elsewhere
falling all over themselves to explain why they got the Democratic race
in New Hampshire so wrong, Stewart was the one who got to the heart of
the matter asking Zogby, somewhat rhetorically, "Has the data
overwhelmed the idea of what it is we're supposed to be discussing."

Out of the mouth of a comedian . . .

After days of coverage of supposed break downs and botched poll
results, Stewart is the one to essentially ask, could these talking
heads discuss a serious issue if they tried? Saturday night's debate
featured refreshing discussion of the issues by candidates from both
parties. But the subsequent coverage was all horse race, boxing match
analysis with the biggest attention to the issues being poll results
that say -- surprise! -- it really is the economy, stupid.

So after a misstep, it was more than great to have Stewart and his follow-up, Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report,
back. No, they aren't riding the buses and talking to the candidates
daily. But, aside from a few merciful exceptions in the TV
news market, such as Charlie Rose, they're the only ones who seem to be taking this election seriously. They just happen to be very funny, too.

In it's third edition, Questapalooza attracted 6,500 people to Quest Community Church in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 31, 2008. The music lineup was Kirk Franklin, Kutless and needtobreathe. In addition to the tunes, festival goers enjoyed carnival attractions, contests, heard a sermon and witnessed baptisms.

The 2008 Ichthus Festival was a roller coaster ride. The week started with the first project by Ichthus Ministries' environmental initiative: ECOS (Earth Commission, Operation Simplify). Then there was the severe thunderstorm June 9 that leveled 14 out of 19 tents at the festival site, with only two days left to open. And it did open, earlier than ever with a Thursday morning battle of the bands. That was followed by one of the hottest Ichthus days ever, and we aren't just talking about Skillet's set the night of June 12. The next day was Friday the 13th, and it turned out to be unlucky for the fest, with thunderstorms scuttling the evening lineup. But as it often has, Ichthus rallied with a fun and worshipful Saturday. The Herald-Leader crew was out there all week. Here's our photo album.

May 19 to 29, 2008, the University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble is taking a trip to China, where it is scheduled to play six concerts and visit seven cities. The tour finds China eagerly anticipating the 2008 Summer Olympics while also mourning the loss of tens of thousands of its citizens to a devastating earthquake on May 12. This photo album begins with images taken by the Herald-Leader's Whitney Waters at event's leading up to the ensemble's departure.

Actors Guild of Lexington's early spring production is Tom Stoppard's brainy drama, Arcadia. The show is a mystery over several centuries involving math, science and literature. Here's a look at some images from the show, which runs through April 6 at the Downtown Arts Center, by Herald-Leader photographer Charles Bertram. The photos are copyrighted by the Herald-Leader.

After years of going to -- excuse us while we clear our throats -- Louisville, Winter Jam finally came to Kentucky's true big house, Rupp Arena, March 6, 2008. That gave Lexington a heaping helping of MercyMe, BarlowGirl and Skillet, as well as others. This is a little record of the event.

The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre is presenting its production of Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" through March 8, 2008 at the Lexington Opera House. To give more students a shot at the stage, and for the sake of the singers' voices, two casts were fielded for this production. University of Kentucky photographer Tim Collins shot both casts. Here's a selection of those images.

Lexington Native Amber Rhodes is a budding country star, shopping a hit independent release around the country, hoping to land a recording contract with a major label. To take a peek into the life of an aspiring country star, and to see how much work it is, I went down to Nashville to spend a day with Amber, as she works to get her name out there. Here are some pictures from that trip. All photos are copyrighted by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Between June 21 and Aug. 2, eight new plays or musicals opened in the immediate Lexington area. That was an extraordinary number of shows for a summer in the Bluegrass State. Here, we offer a photo album from behind the scenes and on stage.

On April 29, 2007, Lexington native Laura Bell Bundy realized her dream of creating a role in a Broadway musical when she took the stage of New York's Palace Theatre playing Elle Woods in 'Legally Blonde.' It's a goal she'd been working toward since age 10, when she played monstrous child star Tina Denmark in the Off Broadway hit 'Ruthless.' Her 'Legally Blonde' performance earned Bundy a Tony Award nomination for best leading actress in a musical. Over the years, Herald-Leader photographers have chronicled Bundy's career. These are some of their best shots, along with a few other photos.

Stephanie Pistello graduated from Lafayette High School and Transylvania University. She went to New York to pursue an acting career, but returned in August 2006 with her New Mummer Group to present Tennessee Williams' "Candles to the Sun" at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Since 1999, the Herald-Leader has previewed the Lexington Shakespeare Festival with profiles and environmental portraits of the actors or directors involved in each show. This is a gallery of those fantastic images.